The Gospel Goes Forth|07.19.26|Acts: Mission on the Road pt.4
It's my pleasure to introduce to you and welcome up here our guest speaker, Mitch Sade. And some of you know Mitch and remember him. And some of you are maybe learning about him for the very first time, but Mitch served as our director of youth ministries a decade ago for five years here at New Life and was raised up and poured into by this congregation. And Mitch felt the call to global missions to serve in Southeast Asia. And so Mitch accepted that call and this church got to send him and be his sending church. And we've been in prayer support and mission support for him and his wife ever since. And so he'll say more about what they've been doing there in Southeast Asia, but I just wanna commend to you. This man, if you don't know him, is a deep thinker, a lover of Jesus. And we're so grateful that you're sharing the word with us today, Mitch. Can we give him a welcome?
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(Audience Applauding) Thank you. (Audience Applauding)
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Well, good morning church. I'm excited to be able to be here and to open up and share God's word with you this morning. It's always a joy to be able to come back home and to preach here. Just like Pastor Drew said, I was the youth director here for five years. So I've been a member of New Life since 2012. And my wife, Tuyi, is in the red dress over here. She's also a member of New Life since 2023, shortly after we got married. So what we get to do is truly an extension of New Life's ministry. So we're very blessed and fortunate to call this our home church and our sending church.
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Well, if you have your Bible, let me, if you would, please open to Acts chapter 15. And feel free to use the Bible below the seat in front of you. If you use that one, you can turn to page 103 in the New Testament. We will be starting there this morning.
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As you know, we are working our way through a portion of the book of Acts this summer. And our passage today is from Acts 15 and 16. And it breaks nicely into four sections. So I will share a central truth from each section and an application point.
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Let me start with a little bit of background information to set the scene.(...) So by the time we reach Acts chapter 15, there is a very important church in the city of Antioch.(...) Antioch was outside of the land of first century Israel. And it's from this church that cross-cultural missions begins to happen. So the Holy Spirit raised up two people from the church in Antioch, Paul and Barnabas, to be the first missionaries sent by their home church. And chapters 13 and 14 record their first missionary journey through the land that is modern day Turkey. Paul and Barnabas traveled around and they proclaimed the gospel message and they planted a few new churches before returning back to their home church in Antioch, where they were essentially missionaries on homoscience.
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Chapter 15 then records what we call the Jerusalem Council, where the elders and leaders of the church gathered together in Jerusalem to discuss the question of what should Christianity look like as it spreads from Jewish background believers into Gentile communities. And they laid forth some guidelines that they thought the new Gentile converts should adhere to.(...) So we pick it up here just after this meeting in Jerusalem. We're back in the church in Antioch in Acts 15, starting in verse 36.
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It says, "After some days, Paul said to Barnabas, "'Come, let us return and visit the brothers and sisters "'in every city where we proclaim the word of the Lord "'and see how they are doing.' "Barnabas wanted to take with them John, "also called Mark. "But Paul decided not to take with them "the one who had deserted them in Pamphylia "and had not accompanied them in their work. "The disagreement became so sharp "that they parted company. "Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus. "But Paul chose Silas and set out the brothers and sisters "commending him to the grace of the Lord. "And he went through Syria and Sevisia, "strengthening the churches."
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So the section starts on a positive note. Paul and Barnabas are together again, and they're discussing about going back to where they were on their first missionary journey, going back to those churches and believers and strengthening them.(...) But things quickly turned sour when they have a disagreement on who should accompany them on this endeavor. And this disagreement was so strong that Paul and Barnabas actually decided not to travel together.(...) Now Barnabas again wanted to take someone called John Mark with them.
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And John Mark had joined Paul and Barnabas for a short time on their first missionary journey, but he left them, or the Bible says he deserted them. So for this reason, Paul thought that John Mark was not ready to join them again on their second missionary journey, and Paul did not want to take him along with them.(...) Paul and Barnabas did not agree, so they parted ways. Barnabas and Mark, they went to the island of Cyprus, while Paul chose another man named Silas, and they started out going to Syria and Cilicia.
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And the Bible doesn't go into great detail about the heated conversation between Paul and Barnabas, but clearly there was a ministry disagreement. And Paul and Barnabas apparently could not work it out. Even though it took several decades, eventually Paul came to value the ministry effectiveness of John Mark. So we see much later in his last written letter that I called Second Timothy, and the final chapter of that letter, he's writing to Timothy and he says, get John Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry.
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So by the grace of God, over the years, John Mark matured as a Christian and as a minister, and we eventually see reconciliation between Paul and John Mark. But here in Acts 15, there was disagreement and even contention. You(...) see, ministry disagreements happen.(...) They happen here at New Life. They happen on the mission field.(...) Ministry disagreements happen in every ministry context. For example, Twee and I right now, we are prayerfully working through something that we hope does not become a ministry disagreement.(...) One of the things that we are doing right now is we are praying and planning and preparing to start new mission work to an unreached people group about four hours from where we live. Now when we do this, we have a few other local
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ministry partners that we will partner with, and right now we're not yet in agreement on how best to do evangelism to this unreached people group. Now it's not a strong disagreement. It's not a theological disagreement. It's a practical thing, and I do believe that we will be able to find middle ground and move forward. But I share this to say that ministry disagreements happen in every ministry context. Twee and I and our local ministry partners, we need to(...) pray together and seek the heart of the Lord together to discern together what he is calling us to do together.
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And so that's the(...) first truth that I want to share with you this morning is that ministry disagreements happen in every ministry context.(...) And the first application is whenever there are ministry disagreements, slow down and seek the heart of the Lord together to discern what he is calling you to.
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And this is the desire of Jesus himself. Jesus prayed that his followers would be one, that his followers would have unity, just as he and the father are one. Jesus prayed in John chapter 17, verse 23, says may they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
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Now that's a pretty amazing prayer.(...) Jesus says that the purpose and the result of Christian unity is to let the world know.
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This means the purpose and the result of Christian unity is so that the world can come to know Jesus.
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And so whenever there is ministry disagreement, no matter the ministry context, the home, the church, the community, the parrot church or the mission field, you need to slow down and seek the heart of the Lord together to discern what he is calling you to.
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Well after Paul and Barnabas parted ways, the story of Acts continues as it follows Paul. So we pick it up in chapter 16, verse one.
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It says Paul went on also to Derbe and Mestre, where there was a disciple named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek.(...) He was well spoken of by the apostle, by the brothers and sisters in Mestre and Iconium. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and so Paul took Timothy and had him circumcised because of the Jews who were living in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.
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As they went from town to town, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and the elders who were in Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in number daily.
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Now Derbe and Mestre were two cities in the region of Galatia. If you look at the map, it's the dark green region in the top right-hand side of the map. And maybe you know that the book of Galatians was written to the churches in this region.(...) Well it's here where Paul met a young Christian named Timothy. And Timothy's mother was a Jewish background Christian, but his father was a non-believing Greek. So ethnically and racially, Timothy was half Jewish and half Gentile, but he was fully Christian. And so by the time Timothy met Paul, he had already come to a deep saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, thanks to his mother and his grandmother.(...) So let me say here to any mom or grandmother here today that I'm sure there are children or grandchildren for whom you are modeling a faithful Christian life. And just like Timothy, they too will grow up to be faithful followers of Christ. So I want to encourage you to continue to set an example in word indeed.
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Now verse three here is very interesting. You see all throughout Paul's writings, he multiple times, he strongly emphasizes the fact that new Gentile converts to Christianity absolutely do not need to be circumcised to be saved.(...) Now circumcision was a physical sign of the old covenant, the Abrahamic covenant, but it is not a requirement
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of the new covenant in Christ.(...) And yet in this one particular case, Paul did want this Christian, Timothy, to be circumcised.(...) Well after this, Paul and Silas and Timothy, they traveled from town to town, sharing with the believers the guidelines laid out by the Jerusalem Council. And in those guidelines, it's very clear, there's four things that Gentile believers should do and things that they should not do. And circumcision is not a requirement for new Gentile Christians. And yet Timothy was willing to do this for the sake of gospel mission.(...) That's the main truth I want to point out from this section, is that gospel mission is spread through partnership and inculturation.(...) This is what we see as Paul and Timothy partnered together and as Timothy adopted the customs of the Jewish Christians that they were visiting in order to be received by them.
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Now the big, fun, missiological term for this is inculturation. So what is inculturation? Well, inculturation is the adaptation of Christian teachings, practices, and liturgy to harmonize with a local culture while simultaneously enriching that culture with the gospel. It ensures the Christian faith takes on relevant local forms without compromising its core doctrines. And that last part is incredibly important without compromising its core doctrines. Inculturation with doctrinal compromise is called syncretism. And syncretism leads to heresy and renders belief non-salvific.
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So inculturation involves the insertion of the gospel into a new cultural environment and the introduction of local cultural elements into the life of the church.(...) Sometimes inculturation is referred to as contextualization or assimilation. In those terms, those slightly different in a technical sense, they all work together.(...) So what does inculturation look like, practically speaking?(...) Well, the examples are very numerous, very numerous throughout church history and the history of missions and even Christianity today. So for example,(...) the clothes that people wear when attending church, it's very different from culture to culture. Or the language in which we sing worship songs, whether we teach the Bible in dialectic or narrative form, whether or not dance is involved in a church worship service, using sports as a means of sharing the gospel and a million more examples.(...) The Christian faith is enculturated into every culture where it exists. And that is a good and beautiful thing if it's done so without compromising its core doctrines.
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Inculturation is why New Life Lutheran Church in Sterling, Illinois(...) and the house church that we're involved with in Southeast Asia,(...) they can look and feel and sound and be very different. But both churches are thriving, healthy, biblical churches.
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Well, back to our passage, what was the result of this partnership and inculturation? Verse five tells us that the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew in numbers daily. That's pretty amazing.(...) So again, point number two is that gospel mission is spread through partnership and inculturation. And then the application very simply is participate in gospel mission through partnership and inculturation.
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Let's continue in Acts 16 starting in verse six. This is the third of our four sections. It says, "They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, "having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit "to preach the word in the province of Asia. "When they(...) had come opposite Missia, "they attempted to go into Bithynia, "but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.
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"So passing by Missia, they went to Troas, down to Troas, "where then during the night Paul had a vision. "There stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him, "saying, come over to Macedonia and help us. "When he had seen the vision, "we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, "being convinced that God had called us to proclaim "the good news to them."
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Now what stands out to me most in this passage is what is recorded in verse six. Did you catch what verse six says? It says, "They were forbidden by the Holy Spirit "from preaching the word in the province of Asia."
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Now usually we don't think of the Holy Spirit as forbidding Christians to preach the word.(...) We think of the Holy Spirit as empowering the preaching of the word. But here Luke records that they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word(...) in the province of Asia. And if you look at the map, the province of Asia is the kind of the pink or the red section right in the middle there on the far western side of modern day Turkey, or what we might call Asia Minor.
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And then we see something similar in verse seven.(...) It says, "The Spirit of Jesus did not allow them "to go into Bithynia."
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So for reasons that only God knows,(...) in his sovereignty, God did not allow Paul and Silas and Timothy to do some things that were good and even God honoring.(...) So Paul and Silas and Timothy, they were blocked by Jesus from going into the province of Bithynia, and they were blocked by Jesus from preaching the word in the province of Asia because God was instead calling them to preach the gospel in Macedonia. And if you look at the map, Macedonia is the orange section on the far top left of the map there.
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So the central truth from this(...) section here, and this might sound cliche, but it's very true.
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The central truth is that God, in his sovereignty,(...) will open and close doors according to his own wisdom and purposes as we follow and serve him.
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But hear this, there will be good and God-honoring activities that are stopped because God closes a door.
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And there will be good, God-honoring activities that advance because God opens a door.
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In your own life, in your walk with Christ, in your ministry, in your home, in this church, in the community, God will open and close doors according to his own wisdom and his own purposes. I'm sure you've experienced that in your own life. It is simply your responsibility to continually seek the Lord, to pray, to plan, to prepare, and to move forward as God allows you.(...) And as you do so, God will open some doors and close others.
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In the nine years since I left New Life and have served in Southeast Asia, I've seen this truth play out in my own life in many, many different ways. For example, one of the things that I get to do in the country where we serve is travel to the countryside and teach and train like tribal church leaders or ethnic minority church leaders. It's the ministry activity I love to do the most. And so two years ago, Tui and I were home here on Home Assignment, and we were fully prepared to go back and to open a new class for new church leaders in a new part, a new area in the central part of the country.(...) Here we are two years later, and we've still not yet been able to start the class in that specific location.(...) It seems that God, for his purposes and in his wisdom, has decided to close that door.(...) But also, according to God's wisdom and purposes, God has opened another door so that we've been able to start a different class for a new group of church leaders in a different part of the country. And we're very grateful for the open door that God has provided.
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But again, for us here today, know that God, in his sovereignty, will open and close doors as you follow and serve him. It may be a little surprising or confusing or at times even disappointing, and that's okay. We need to trust the Lord.
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And your responsibility then is just to continually seek the Lord, to pray, to plan, to prepare, and to move forward as God allows you.
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Now let's look at the fourth and final section starting in verse 11.(...) The Bible says, "We therefore set sail from Troas "and took a straight course down to Semothrace "the following day to Neapolis, "and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city "in the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. "We remained in this city for some days. "On the Sabbath day,(...) we went outside the gate "by the river where we suppose there was a place of prayer. "And we sat down and spoke with the women "who had gathered there.
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"A certain woman named Lydia, a worshipper of God, "was listening to us. "She was from the city of Thyatira "and a dealer in purple cloth. "The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly "to what was said by Paul.
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"When she and her household were baptized, "she urged us saying, if you have judged me "to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home. "And she prevailed upon us."
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What a great story and testimony we have here of Lydia.(...) So after the Holy Spirit closed the door to one place, Paul and his co-laborers traveled to another place. And they went to the city of Philippi in the region of Macedonia. While in Philippi, verse 13 tells us that they went to a place of prayer, and they spoke with the women who were gathered there and they shared the gospel with them. And one woman named Lydia, verse 14 tells us, "The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message "and she put her faith in Jesus."
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Let me point out here that everything that happened in the gospels and everything that has happened up to this point in the book of Acts, it all takes place in what we call the Middle East. But here, Acts 16, the city of Philippi is in modern-day Greece. So this makes Lydia the very first Christian ever on the continent of Europe. I think that's pretty cool.
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Well, verse 14 also tells us that Lydia was a dealer in purple cloth. So biblical historians believe that Lydia was likely a pretty wealthy individual, as purple cloth was a profitable luxury item at that time.(...) Verse 14 also tells us that she was a worshipper of God. And this is a specific term that means that Lydia was a Gentile who followed the Jewish faith. Her knowledge of Judaism certainly prepared her to receive and believe the gospel message. Well, not only did she put her faith in Jesus, but so too did the members of her household because all of them were baptized. So our final main truth this morning is...
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Yep, Lydia was a connector of the gospel to her entire household and to her community.(...) So we could say that Lydia was a person of peace.(...) A person of peace is a concept in cross-cultural, missional practice, which refers to someone in an unreached place or an unreached people group that is open to receiving and hopefully believing the gospel.(...) The person of peace concept comes from Jesus' words in Luke chapter 10,(...) where Jesus sends out 72 of his followers. He directed them to stay in the home of someone who receives peace and gives peace. Now today in frontier missionary context, meaning for missionaries who tried to reach unreached people groups, they often pray for and try to find a person of peace.(...) A person of peace will likely become the very first Christian ever in an unreached people group. So Lydia was that person here in Acts 16,(...) and verse 15 tells us that Paul and his co-laborers stayed in her home for a time.(...) So Lydia, the connector of the gospel to others, is also known for her hospitality.
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So the final application point this morning is be a connector of the gospel to your household and community.(...) Thankfully, this application point can be accomplished in a million different ways, right? So I just have a list through relationships, conversations, invitations, actions, words, gifts, tithing and giving, hospitality, praying, listening, eating meals together, serving, sharing your story, and so much more.(...) You and me, just like Lydia, we can connect the gospel to our friends, our family, co-workers, and our neighbors in many different ways. And what do I mean by the word gospel? I mean the good news, the good news that God is the holy and righteous and just and sovereign, omnipotent, creator of all things. God created you and me and all people in his image. And even though he is good and patient and kind and wise and loving,(...) we have all rejected him in his ways, choosing sin in our own ways instead. Because of sin, we are separated from God and are spiritually dead. Anyone who dies unforgiven of sin will eternally be under the just wrath of God in hell forever.
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But thankfully, and to the praise of his glory, God has made a way for people to be saved. Jesus Christ, the eternal son of God, left the glories of heaven, became a human being, lived a life with no sin. And even though he had no sin to die for, he chose to die for you, for me, and for all people.
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He was crucified,(...) he died, and he was buried.(...) But he didn't stay dead for very long. After just three days, he rose again from the grave in victory over sin and Satan and death. So now anyone, no matter who you are, no matter what you've done, anyone who repents of sin and puts their faith in Jesus Christ alone will be saved, will be forgiven of sin, and will receive salvation, eternal life. That is the gospel good news that we must believe, and that is the gospel good news that we must continue to share with others. And in so doing, God will be honored and glorified.
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Friends, as I close, let's remember these four things.(...) In a ministry disagreement, slow down and seek the heart of the Lord together to discern what he is calling you to.
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Participate in gospel ministry through partnership and inculturation.
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Trust that God and his sovereignty will open and close doors according to his own wisdom and purposes as you follow and serve him.(...) And be a connector of the gospel to your household and community.
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Amen.